Unhealthy interest in sales figures

[J_C]

Vault Dweller , will you share us the sales numbers like a real bro, or you will bullshit us like publishers do.

 

[Nael]

Vault Dweller , will you share us the sales numbers like a real bro, or you will bullshit us like publishers do.

He already responded in another thread and said sometime later next week. Numbers like that probably aren't exactly on-demand when you account for returns and the like.

 

[Vault Dweller]

20,178 from Steam and BMT (don't have GoG and GamersGate numbers yet).

 

[likaq]

How many of these copies on bmt?

 

[likaq]

Maybe newpost about this ?

 

[Vault Dweller]

How many of these on bmt?

About 10%. Steam IS a powerhouse.

Maybe newpost about this to ?

Too soon. Let us get the numbers from GoG first.

 

[Sensuki]

AoD has less sales than SitS on GoG but it's about half a page behind, so it's probably a few thousand at least.

 

[Goral]

20,178 from Steam and BMT (don't have GoG and GamersGate numbers yet).

But you still need at least 25k more and I'm afraid that the sales will drop a lot once more reviews start coming in. I hope I'm wrong.

 

[Crooked Bee]

20,178 from Steam and BMT (don't have GoG and GamersGate numbers yet).

Post-release or total?

 

[Vault Dweller]

But you still need at least 25k more and I'm afraid that the sales will drop a lot once more reviews start coming in. I hope I'm wrong.

They will drop, of course, but we had a stronger launch than anticipated (i.e. it's better when they drop from 2k copies a day than when they drop from 300-500 copies a day). My comment about 30k copies was misunderstood. I said that we need to sell extra 30k copies to call the venture successful, not that we need to sell 30k copies to start working on the colony ship RPG.

Post-release or total?

Total, of course.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Well, that spike did look intimidating

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

Steam sales in the future too though. Indies often do well off those, and this game hasn't really been on sale yet (unlike some which have had multiple sales before even being released)

 

[Archibald]

They will drop, of course, but we had a stronger launch than anticipated (i.e. it's better when they drop from 2k copies a day than when they drop from 300-500 copies a day). My comment about 30k copies was misunderstood. I said that we need to sell extra 30k copies to call the venture successful, not that we need to sell 30k copies to start working on the colony ship RPG.

At what point you'll start doing 75% sales and bundles? Or do you consider those "harmful" in the long run?

 

[SniperHF]

At what point you'll start doing 75% sales and bundles? Or do you consider those "harmful" in the long run?

At least with the 75% thing you conceivably are going to get people who wishlisted the game and are actually interested. Bundle is definitely harmful at any point before a year has passed. Maybe 2 for RPGs.

 

[HobGoblin42]

I wouldn't ever discount AoD more than 33%. It's a matter of respect for your own work and to hell with those consumers who don't see that. AoD is not another Spiderweb shovelware game. I am sure, VD will benefit from sales at a high price in long-term.

 

[likaq]

in before metro butthurt

 

[Aterdux Entertainment]

Sales like 33% don't do anything pretty much. Steam won't put AoD on Daily Deal or feature it during Christmas sale with this kind of discount. In order to get Daily Deal or featuring you need to discount the game at least 50%. At least that was our experience. And our recent sale 55% off didn't reduce our wishlist, it actually grew a few thousand.

And sales without featuring don't make much sense since they don't get any front page visibility.

 

[felipepepe]

I wouldn't ever discount AoD more than 33%. It's a matter of respect for your own work and to hell with those consumers who don't see that.

That's a very narrow-minded & personal way of doing business... Sure, it would be weird to go bellow 25-33% this Winter Sale already, but I would certainly go 50-60% on the next Summer Sale, and likely 75-80% on 2016's Winter Sale (or even earlier).

Each buyer has its own ideal price. Doing discounts after after a while doesn't kill full price sales - those who would pay that already bought your game -, now you're gaining partial sales from people who would never buy otherwise. It's basic math: 5 people buying at 25% is better than 1 person buying at 100%. And a large discount can bring in thousands.

Not to mention that the bigger your "install base" is, the easier it's to get word-of-mouth for your game after the sale, or to reach them when releasing your next game.

 

[Aterdux Entertainment]

That's a very narrow-minded & personal way of doing business... Sure, it would be weird to go bellow 25-33% this Winter Sale already, but I would certainly go 50-60% on the next Summer Sale, and likely 75-80% on 2016's Winter Sale.

I'd go for 50% off at least. Again, even with 50% off it's not a guarantee the game will be featured. Usually, you can create two things: duration discount (for the entire time of the sale) and featuring discount. I'd go for 25-30% off for duration discount and 50% off for the featuring discount. I am sorry for repeating myself but putting the game on sale without featuring will increase sales only by a little. However, any front page visibility results in drastically better sales. Now of course with so many games even these sales tend to be less than what they used to be but the visibility is still the king.

 

[t]

I vaguely remember Vince assuring people on steam forums during the last sale that the game won't be discounted for more than 15% for a year. If I remember correctly, wonder if that's still the case.

 

[felipepepe]

I guess it depends on the sales data by then... if there's still some buzz and a decent sales flow two months from now, going 50% seems too soon.

But it's true, a single day as featured 50% discount on Steam's front page can bring in more sales in a day than they would get in a year otherwise. VD's post-release sales graph shows that very well.

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

I hope this game will do ok out of ongoing word-of-mouth sales and I think it has a shot. Not because everyone likes it, but because people tend to either really like it or really dislike it. It's not a "meh" game which people don't bother mentioning. Some of the adverse comments I've seen on other sites descend into rants about the tough combat, unforgiving design philosophy and how fans of this game supposedly think they're more monocled and old-school and shit like that.

For small games without advertising budgets it's good to be talked about, even if opinions are polarised. Perhaps people will end up trying the demo to see what the fuss is about.

 

[Vault Dweller]

At what point you'll start doing 75% sales and bundles? Or do you consider those "harmful" in the long run?

Bundles - probably never. They are only good for greatly inflating the numbers of copies sold. 75% off - not for the next 2 years. Once you go with 66% off or more, you never recover (i.e. never sell even half of what you used to sell a day at full price). We aren't in a rush to drop the price plus we've just launched, so it's way too early to talk about it.

That's a very narrow-minded & personal way of doing business... Sure, it would be weird to go bellow 25-33% this Winter Sale already, but I would certainly go 50-60% on the next Summer Sale, and likely 75-80% on 2016's Winter Sale (or even earlier).

Too soon. It's my understanding that the bulk of your sales happens between sales. Like Alexander said, offering 50% didn't clear their wishlist, it only grew because the sale sent a message that the game is close to being really discounted, which means that less people will buy it throughout the year.

So, we won't do 25-33% off this winter sale and we definitely won't do 50-60% on the next summer sale. 75-80%? You do it and you're done selling above that level.

 

[Aterdux Entertainment]

So, we won't do 25-33% off this winter sale and we definitely won't do 50-60% on the next summer sale. 75-80%? You do it and you're done selling above that level.

I am not sure that is the smartest way of doing things but that's up to you. Just bear in mind, now, shortly after release while your sales didn't drop yet and there is enough interest, putting your game on sale might be easy. Later on, when sales drop (5-10 a day) it might be hard to convince Steam to feature you in any way.

 

[Vault Dweller]

We never had much luck with the front page, so for us it's a random factor we can't rely on.